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Cook County Board votes to sue Burr Oak owners

Sheriff's office has spent $326,000 so far on cemetery probe

Wednesday, July 22, 2009Chicago Tribuneby Dan P. Blake and Jeff Coen

Cook County Board
members Tuesday voted to sue the owners of the troubled Burr Oak
Cemetery to try to recoup costs incurred by a sheriff's police
investigation into an alleged scheme by employees to dig up graves and
resell the plots.

Sheriff Tom Dart told commissioners that so
far the sheriff's office has racked up $326,000 during its
investigation, primarily in overtime costs and materials.

Separately,
the board approved a resolution to waive the county portion of the
county clerk's death records fee for family members who are trying to
find out about relatives who are buried at Burr Oak.

Also Tuesday, the head of the FBI
in Chicago said investigators have recovered about 200 bones and bone
fragments during their search at the cemetery since early last week.

"This was basically digging up and dropping," Robert Grant,
special agent-in-charge of the FBI in Chicago, said of the gravediggers
who allegedly excavated remains from old graves, dumped them in a
secluded section of the cemetery and resold the plots.

Investigators
are working to recover remains in two main sections, officials said.
"We have to literally go through the site by hand," Grant said.

Also,
the man appointed by a judge to run the cemetery isn't ready to reopen
it by Aug. 1 as originally planned, his attorney said Tuesday.

Investigators
have kept the cemetery gates locked since July 12, meaning thousands of
desperate families can't find out whether their loved ones' graves are
among those affected.

After his appointment last week, Roman
Szabelski said he expected that the families would be allowed access to
the cemetery by the end of the month. But his attorney, Jim Geoly, said
Szabelski needs "another week" after reviewing the condition of
cemetery records.

Dart pleaded for patience from the public,
saying that to open the gates now would lead to a crush of upset
visitors. The sheriff's office soon will offer an online site with
photos of all the headstones in the cemetery -- including those
undisturbed -- to help give families answers.

The Burr Oak
worker who blew the whistle on the alleged scandal was identified
Tuesday as Willie Esper, 26, of Chicago, the Associated Press reported.

Court
papers referred to the whistleblower as "Employee A," and the AP
reported that a person close to the investigation, speaking on
condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, confirmed
that Esper is Employee A.

Esper unearthed bones when he was
practicing digging holes. Hesitant to alert officials because he feared
losing his job, he talked about the situation close enough so that a
colleague would overhear him and report it to authorities, the report
stated.